[stop-imf] Trade Union Delegation Meets World Bank/IMF

[Robert Weissman]

INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)

ICFTU OnLine...
182/221002/JL

21-23 October: High-level trade union delegation meeting with
international financial institutions (IFIs) - ICFTU releases new
briefing paper on privatization - 'Public Service or Private Profits.'

Trade Unions tell IMF/WB to change the model

Brussels October 22, 2002 (ICFTU online): Between 21-23 October, over 90
trade unionists are taking part in consultative meetings with the
IMF/World Bank. Yesterday, the delegation - including 29 national union
leaders - met World Bank President James Wolfensohn, IMF Managing
Director Horst K=F6hler and other officials to discuss issues including
privatisation, poverty reduction and reforms of the international
financial architecture. The scale and scope of the meetings is
unprecedented, and the unionists confronted these institutions with
evidence of the continuing damage wrought by their policies throughout
the developing world.

The ICFTU is highly critical of the international financial
institution's (IFIs) promotion of the "dysfunctional practices of US
capitalism" in developing countries and particularly condemnatory of the
dogmatic "fix it, even if it isn't broken" approach to privatisation. As
laid out in a new ICFTU briefing paper "Public Service or Private
Profits", privatisation for most workers has come to mean increasing
charges for public utilities and growing inequality, as well as unfair
dismissals and non-respect of union rights. The ICFTU maintains that the
IFIs bear much of the responsibility for these failures.

The paper further highlights the contradictions in the Bank's
much-vaunted participatory approach to privatization. The Bank claims to
involve workers in the process; yet in reality, trade unions and other
civil society organizations are only consulted once the decision to
privatize has already been taken. While consultation on other issues has
improved, experience with privatization has shown that trade unions are
only consulted when it comes to planning issues such as severance
programmes and dismissals from downsizing. Meanwhile, the relentless
ideological drive to privatise at any cost continues unabated.

During the Washington meetings, the trade union delegation is also
insisting on the urgency for the IMF to put in place a fair and
transparent mechanism which would allow for an orderly renegotiation of
unsustainable external debt and reduce the catastrophic consequences of
defaults, such as that of Argentina. In addition, members of the
delegation have explained how World Bank-sponsored social security
privatisation was one of the leading causes of the fiscal crisis in
Argentina, as contributions that formerly covered the costs of public
pensions (still the only source of income for most retirees), were
diverted into highly cost-inefficient private funds. The same model of
pension privatization, which is in part inspired by the largely
discredited Bush plan for social security privatization in the US, is
being applied by the World Bank in several other countries, particularly
in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Trade unionists from those regions
are demonstrating how these "reforms" will worsen the situation of most
retired workers.

 "The trade union delegation is calling for greater transparency in the
IFI decision-making processes, especially concerning privatisation
policies, and better consultation of workers and civil society,"
explained ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder. "But above all, the unions
are calling on the IFIs to stop promoting economically and socially
destructive structural adjustment, not just in their rhetoric, but also
in their loan conditions and their country-level policy advice."

Further information:


'Public Services or Private Profits'
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=3D991216605&Language=3DEN

'Changing the Model: IFI Policies and the Failures of Corporate-Driven Glob=
alisation,'
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=3D991216493&Language=3DEN

The ICFTU represents more than 157 million workers in 225 affiliated
organisations in 148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member
of Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2
224 0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.